


Visions of Fire

by grandmelon



Series: The Missing Element [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Kisumi is a good friend, M/M, Pining, Sousuke's only friend, Teenagers, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 16:56:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16876674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grandmelon/pseuds/grandmelon
Summary: Stranded drunk on the beach, Sousuke dreams of fire.





	Visions of Fire

**Author's Note:**

> Holidays are busy for us at work and I'm doing full time now, but I managed to write this a few weeks ago and finally got to finishing it! I hope you guys enjoy! I still want to finish the SR week 5 before the next because part 3 will be really long! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this!

Ever since that fateful day, getting lost in the woods, happening upon a magical boy, Sousuke’s world had changed.

 

Swirling distortion of light followed by mysterious beings coming and going, unbeknownst to the normal people around them. It was a sight he grew used to seeing, but whether it was real or his imagination he could never really figure out. He had tried calling out to the people he saw using what he had come to know as portals, but they never responded, as though they didn’t see him at all. It made him wonder if he could trust what he saw. If maybe, everyone was right, and he was just imagining it.

 

He was convinced there was something more to it. He couldn’t erase the memories of a boy with blinding red hair and a sharp smile, an image he clung to, desperate to remember a foggy childhood that resulted in seeing more than just the unusual. Ever since that summer at his cousin’s he saw things he couldn’t quite explain. Things he stopped trying to understand or get people to understand.

 

Junior high was harsh, his peers convinced he was a lunatic and his growth spurt causing them to be even more weary, fearing him a dangerous person. His family chalked it up to trauma from being lost in the woods at a young age, that the mysterious boy was an imaginary friend he came up with to cope with the situation. Only one person believed him, an equally strange but well-loved boy with an eccentric name. His best friend and the reason he hadn’t been isolated in high school, Shigino Kisumi.

 

Kisumi, the crazy nutjob who had somehow convinced him into coming to a party being thrown at an abandoned beach house. Brats drinking booze, pretending to be adults, that’s all Sousuke saw as he came up upon the building. Giggling drunk students, some of which he could recognize as his seniors, stumbling in to the house like it was a test of courage. A series of tents and a bonfire resided on the private beach, unmonitored due to the off season and recent budge cuts to the local law enforcement. It was the perfect recipe for disaster, if you asked Sousuke.

 

“You’re such an old-man Sousuke, live a little!” his companion had said to him, and so there he was, trying to fight off his general discomfort to join his friend for a night of idiocy.

 

A warm arm wrapped around his shoulders and Sousuke turned to get a face full of curly hair and laughter. “You made it!” Kisumi cheered, already a few drinks deep going by the smell of his breath. “I thought for sure you’d get lost on the way!”

 

“Yamazaki-kun! I’m so glad you came! Here, drink,” a girl said, shoving herself up against him and holding a cup to his lips. Trapped between the two Sousuke just steadied them, grabbing the drink himself and giving it a sip, scowling at the bitter taste. “Come play with us, come play!”

 

“Yeah, Sousuke! I need a partner for this game we’re playing!” Kisumi said, smacking a kiss on his cheek when Sousuke reluctantly agreed.

 

A steady stream of beer was the only thing keeping Sousuke from leaving about an hour in. He did get lost on the way, and that was while he was sober. Although pride was less an issue the more he drank, by the time he was drunk enough to admit to Kisumi he wouldn’t be able to walk home alone everyone had started to pair off to fool around. Some in their tents, some took to the woods. When Kisumi dragged some boy Sousuke didn’t know away he decided the best thing to do was to finish the bottle of sake left with him and stay warm next to the fire.

 

Sousuke felt himself become sleepy, eyes almost burning, staring into the fire. He shivered, shrugging his jacket up his shoulders when a cold sea breeze blew against his exposed neck.

 

_Sousuke, are you alright?_

“Yeah,” Sousuke mumbled, taking another swig.

 

_Don’t move okay?_

“What?” Sousuke asked, turning his head. He looked to his other side, no one was there. He could hear muffled moans and groaned in frustration, finishing off the bottle and throwing it into the fire, holding his head. It was a mistake to come to this. Stranded drunk on the beach while what sounded like an amateur porno was playing in the background.

 

_Sousuke, it’s okay to touch it. You’re cold aren’t you?_

Blinking, gazing deep into the yellow and orange, the red licking at the sky. The wind blew, and warm air seemed to encompass him. The loneliness growing in his heart vanished. The world around him darkened, focusing in on the fire dancing in front of him. Like it was just him and the fire. Just the two of them in a sea of darkness.

 

_Come here, Sousuke._

 

And suddenly, there he was. The boy. Young, a bright smile on, hand outreached towards his. Sousuke reached for him and he stepped back, further into the flame. Standing up, he stumbled a little, footing unsure in the ever-shifting sand. He walked forward, stepping over the small ring of rocks, hand outstretched. The small boy grabbed his hand, pulling him further, to the center.

 

_Do you feel better?_

 

Sousuke nodded, feeling a thousand tendrils of burning flame wrap around him, caressing him, gentle. The wind couldn’t touch him there. The boy vanished as a shout of his name came echoing across the beach. He turned around, and it was like the world had opened back up. The moonlit beach, the shady trees, two figures emerging from its darkness, stumbling towards him.

 

He stepped back out of the fire, looking at his hands and arms. His shoes were black with ash, but they weren’t burnt. He walked ahead, grabbing ahold of his friend who was telling him which tent they’d be sharing. He helped Kisumi and an embarrassed boy in, Kisumi pulling him inside before he could protest, the two of them nodding off in seconds.

 

Sousuke stared at the tent ceiling, hearing the wind beating against it and feeling a chill throughout his body. Remembering the fire left ablaze outside, he felt a warmth in his fingers and drifted into a deep sleep, where familiar flames and a twelve-year-old boy greeted him. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr Post](http://melonmachinery.tumblr.com/post/180849311053/visions-of-fire-grandmelon-free-archive-of)   
>  [Twitter Post](https://twitter.com/grandmelon/status/1070540524258541569)


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